Mowing the Back Yard by Herd - Book Haunted
Fall being around the corner, I needed to trim the yard. Some years ago, I gradually quit mowing with gas-fueled machines in favor of my grass-munching cows. Meanwhile, my muses haunt every moment...
Hi,
Glad to have you open this once again (or even for a first time). Yes, life (and writing) goes along on this farm with trials, tribulations, joys, and marvels. And my daily/weekly writing continues as well. Glad to share this all with you.
Farming News - Mowing the lawn by herd is overdue. One bull goes to market.
Writing News - Got the workbook set. And a big 19-book collection for the Kickstarter. Plus two classics revived for study.
Fiction News - 2nd in series, but I may bring these out differently for this anthology…
Expectancy Tips - Faith is the kicker and the touchstone. Back to becoming what we think about…
Farming News
Mowing the lawn - what I have called the “El Toro” way.
You may have a Toro brand mower. My name got started one year when I put the bulls and the steers to work mowing early-Spring grass. (Toro is of course, Spanish for “bull”.)
This is a photo just feet away from our cottage deck. Note the electric polywire on the lower left. Doing a fair job as I mob them up. (They do bring the density of flies up, though.)
A few of those you may recognize in this photo, maybe even by name.
They have a three-acre pond (technically a lake) for them to water and bathe in. I’ll bunch these up and have them graze everything down around the main house. Then move them over to another pasture for October, just in time to get back to their Miscanthus grazing again before it dies off with the first hard freeze in November.
Somewhere in there, I have to get their hay out for the February worst.
In a few days, I’ll give them the front yard, too.
As you get this, our bull Randy will be at the auction. Because we don’t really need two, and the tiffs he and our Big Red bull have over who has who in their harem makes a few people nervous around here. He’s up on Facebook, which is what the Midwest Livestock Regional Stockyard uses for their promotion.
(And that’s the only real use I have for Facebook.)
Always bittersweet as I work to find a new home for good bulls.
Tiny Home News
Still canning Amish-raised green beans.
Still waiting on the lawyer for that title. Did get with our shed-to-home sales guy to get an estimate. Once the title clears, then the electrical can get installed. Then the first small home, plus moving our cottage. Somewhere in there we install water, too.
Cooler nights are more comfortable - when we can turn off the A/C and open up the windows.
Writing News
Got that workbook ready. About 30 pages of material, due to become a reader-magnet and Kickstarter low-end reward.
But found myself haunted. Writing and re-writing ideas in my early mornings - before I got up, somewhere between sleeping and rising.
Somehow, in my fully awake moments, I also got onto cleaning up the OCR on the two Foster-Harris books, “Basics Patterns of Plots” and “Basic Formulas of Fiction”. Both out of print, both under the same publisher, so they could be revived. That last one is in the public domain.
Harris was the other half of Campbell’s OU Professional Writing training. And taught Aristotelian approach to writing. Both books fill some background that ads onto what Campbell covered in his four tomes on writing.
Between those two authors, it’s rocking my world about what I’d really thought good writing was.
Now I compare these all with Dwight Swain’s later books, as well as Jack Bickham, who was also a teacher there. Swain, Harris, and Campbell all wrote their texts while teaching as well. Bickham was a graduate and wrote his texts later. So his style is different and seems to omit some basics. Still good, though.
(And then come forward to Shawn Coyne’s “Story Grid” as another comparative - since he found a lot of this on his own independent studies.)
This work I’m doing is to revive the OU Professional Writing classics as best I can. Cross-comparing them should do most of it. But again, most of these works are out of print and I’m working with OCR’d digital copies where I have to.
Essentially, the reason is to up-level my writing skills.
Anyway, I have all this great stuff sitting around and distracting me when I should be getting my completed books published. Look for those two this week (WriterpreneurOS and Copywriting for Writerpreneurs.)
Then I can start this last set and wrap those up, consolidating them with what I’ve learned in these last two big books.
Oh, I also compiled my 19 books on self-publishing into a single Kickstarter bonus. (Calibre does the heavy lifting on that.) And was fascinated with what I’d left in there. Sure, I’ve pulled out the truly evergreen material, but make quite a few points over those 1467 pages of material. Nice journey overall. It will never be other than an oversized ebook, though. Not timeless enough.
(Hint: support the Kickstarter and get your own limited-edition copy.)
I should get WriterpreneurOS published this week. Ebook and paperback - a generic version, not the special editions I’ll be offering on that Kickstarter.
Then finish line-editing the Copywriting book and get that published the following week. Both will be soft-launches.
Other Writing News
Nanowrimo imploded this week. Sad. That organization bought into the AI and DEI garbage floating around. I left a note on this:
Nice being part of it while it was still human. The idea of it still works. 1200 words a day for a month. Once you master that discipline, that skill stays with you.
The last time I did it, I created 9 short stories in a serial-series in about 3 weeks, turned around and edited, published that last week. Now I take more time, but can still crank out tons of words quickly.
As above, the focus is in polishing them now. Volume is one thing. Perennial-selling books forces you to level up your talent.
WriterpreneurOS Posts
This is a new chapter for that book. I have one additional chapter to publish here on Substack - Monday. Maybe about the time I publish the book itself.
The reason was that some other questions came up - one of which was the burn-out syndrome I and others experienced, the other to answer a point brought up that perhaps publishing books isn’t the end-all of every writer to make their living…
Fiction Posts
Second book in the “Death by Advertising” Anthology posted this week.
See that post to explain more about how that standalone helped launch a whole series over two years later.
ICYMI: Here’s the full list of stories we’ll be re-telling. Probably end of October when they are all done - that third one is a longish novella, so I may have to split it up.
Death by Advertising
The Caretaker (under the C. C. Brower pen-name)
Triangle - A Memoir
Last Chance
Death by Sales Pitch
Death by Marketing
The Chrysalis Cure
I’m planning to move Death by Sales Pitch before Last Chance, so the series flows better. And also look over Triangle to see if it can be split into two shorter pieces. If so, I’ll alternate these. The tie-ins on these are vague enough such that I can build a rhythm into this series so it incorporates better. Chrysalis Cure (my last published fiction work - for now) will be last for this series, regardless.
Expectancy Tips
The Expectancy material has its roots in Nightingale’s Strangest Secret - where he recommended a handful of books.
A core one is “Magic of Believing” by Claude M. Bristol. He made his living as a motivational speaker and finally was persuaded to write up a full book with his file cabinets of additional examples he amassed during that life-journey.
Essentially, it is true and provable that “what you expect, you receive.”
What ever you want. All that you need. Really.
One of the old Huna principles is that “There are no limits.” Now this also includes the concept that we are all connected.
And that’s the power of this material. Because as you envision and pray for both yourself and others around you, this world and universe shifts - perceptibly. The more you expand your responsibility toward others, the more all life (and living beings) around you improve.
It works for getting great parking places, and serendipitous occurrences.
The only limit is your own faith - which is a discipline that just keeps getting better with practice, as long as you are conscientiously working to improve it. Like any skill. That old 10,000 hours idea - but you get credit for your entire lifetime up to this point, more or less. Focusing on improving your faith can make your life far more interesting and rewarding.
Yes, this is all cryptic. But check out that Nightingale lecture and the books he’s referenced. And change your life bit by bit and get everything you really want out of life.
Truly.
Still working on my bonuses in the paid subscription area. You can visit https://store.livingsensical.com for my numerous discount-priced collections of books, courses, materials. As usual.
Kickstarter Previews
Still need your feedback on the Kickstarter preview.
Please visit the preview and use their comment area to tell me what needs to improve - or just give me (needed) attaboys.
Kickstarter display page here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1481356435/1548894263?ref=a5wy7u&token=315549e4 (Feel free to share that preview…)
Sign up to be notified when it goes live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robertworstell/writerpreneur-cracking-the-cashflow-code-non-fiction-book (Sign up now. Share that link with anyone you know who it could help.
PS. I discovered late pledges have been implemented by Kickstarter - so mine will have these for all who missed the initial roll-out. Lots of great stuff. When we get back to it.
A Special Offer Returns
Continuing along - the beta-readers version of WriterpreneurOS is now available as updated. It will be available at this link until I start the Kickstarter release, you can download the new and improved edition (especially if you already have it from earlier.)
That link is also Pay What You Want - a nice way to donate.
Here’s the link: https://livingsensical.gumroad.com/l/WOS01-beta-readers
AN ASK: if you’ve downloaded it, please give some feedback. Leave it in the comments, send me an email. Something, anything. Like it, could be better.
Thanks for being there, opening this.
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Leave a comment if something strikes your fancy.
I hope your life is not too interesting to be overwhelming, but sufficiently engaging to keep you amused. (Like some of us here...)
Robert
PS. Again, you can always email me about anything.
PPS. Again, do upgrade to the paid newsletter version. That helps me keep the lights on - so I can keep all this coming to you. As much or little as you want…
(Meanwhile, I’ve put my archived newsletters and articles all available as free on Substack, instead of behind a paywall.)
AND you can always buy me a coffee…